Covid, Economics, and Your way of 'Seeing'...

[raid]

I took photos of damages from the hurricane.

Which lens Raid and much PP (though not to be rude, I did want to say , Did You piss on it much, alright be a Lady , Helen! ?

I used the M10 with a Summilux 75 here. Very little PP here, Helen.
No p*ss at all!

Sometimes I prefer using my phone camera! As someone said, it feels like using a view camera.

 

[Horatio]

My interest in film photography was rekindled just before the pandemic. I've been collecting gear and experimenting with black and white since then, working on that 'vision' thing, trying to pick ONE film for that ONE camera and lens. Lately I've been photographing empty/closed shops.

 

[Bingley]

I retired at the end of March, looking forward to lots of travel and associated photography. That didn’t work out so well... so my photography has gone in three directions: photos of my baby granddaughter born Mar 22; photos of people engaging in socially distanced exercise as a way of coping with lockdown, mainly in the Bay Area; and landscape photography that I can do on my own here in CA. My travel has been exclusively w/in CA, either alone or w/ my wife. And photography has been a greater focus of that travel than it might otherwise have been. Overall, I’ve been shooting more, while shooting different than before the lockdown.

 

[petronius]

I do more or less the same as before; whatever this says about my life and my photography.

 

[robert blu]

During the first wave of pandemic here in north Italy we had a more than two months lockdown. I took photos at home, on the terrace, and a couple of times on the strreet when going to shop food (which was allowed only once a week).
Now I'm finalizing the edit of this work in form of both a boook and a zine (different price levels) with pictures and a few thoughts from "those moments" which is the title.

Life has to go on, in the last few weeks I started a project about my neighborhhod, simple views, details and thoughts.

But now even if not (yet?) mandatory we are in a simil lockdown situation and being in a risky age group I'll probably stay home so much as possible, perhaps only short walks when nobody is around. Again time for editing new works with old photos, think, make projetcs.

And work more on my "quiet photographer" blog 🙂

the dummy:

and one from the neighborhood project:

 

[jsrockit]

oh my Goodness John, You have been Blessed !
A new country to Explore, A Wife, Fatherhood, A Son, a new home
Editing one's work, Books, A Website, a new of seeing

Dang, some of it done in crazy, stressful times,You are AMAZING !

Thank you. I think it was just my way of trying to stay sane. 🙂 I hope you are doing really well and be careful. 🙂

 

[helen.HH]

I used the M10 with a Summilux 75 here. Very little PP here, Helen.
No p*ss at all!

Sometimes I prefer using my phone camera! As someone said, it feels like using a view camera.

hate to say it Raid, but that phone camera photo is quite Fab, YUM !!
Gives some competition to that M10
Though it's really your Eye and the cool composition that makes the photo

 

[back alley]

During the first wave of pandemic here in north Italy we had a more than two months lockdown. I took photos at home, on the terrace, and a couple of times on the strreet when going to shop food (which was allowed only once a week).
Now I'm finalizing the edit of this work in form of both a boook and a zine (different price levels) with pictures and a few thoughts from "those moments" which is the title.

Life has to go on, in the last few weeks I started a project about my neighborhhod, simple views, details and thoughts.

But now even if not (yet?) mandatory we are in a simil lockdown situation and being in a risky age group I'll probably stay home so much as possible, perhaps only short walks when nobody is around. Again time for editing new works with old photos, think, make projetcs.

And work more on my "quiet photographer" blog 🙂

the dummy:

and one from the neighborhood project:

I like that second image...

 

[helen.HH]

Guth:
so cool, You have gone the road of a typewriter
have been musing over that possibility...
the lure of slowing down Time, listening to the keys, getting away from a screen

 

[helen.HH]

My interest in film photography was rekindled just before the pandemic. I've been collecting gear and experimenting with black and white since then, working on that 'vision' thing, trying to pick ONE film for that ONE camera and lens. Lately I've been photographing empty/closed shops.

Lucky You, a romance back with film

I am falling behind when shooting film,
thinking about developing/scanning just does not turn me on at the moment , only the final outcome of a film image I find more alluring

 

[helen.HH]

I do more or less the same as before; whatever this says about my life and my photography.

an Even keel Soul You are... well balanced
Lovely to hear a rock solid vision, work ethic 😉

 

[helen.HH]

The 'dummy' looks good from the ouside... wonder about the inside View ?

Love the black & white photo of your neighborhood
The oof/bokeh has just enough to show our couple in masks
and the Mood enough Atmosphere to make us feel a little tense , a little foreboding

 

[helen.HH]

Bingley:

Congrats on retirement and a Grand Daughter !
Great to hear You are shooting more

Have always Enjoyed and loved your Landscapes ~ hope to see more

 

[halfaninchawater]

I have always had a camera with me when I traveled. Be it local, international or just a trip to the farmers market I could always find a subject that piqued my interest enough to try and capture what I saw. This pandemic has closed some of those avenues and limited others for me. Facial expressions are pretty much nonexistent with a mask. The world is still there however and there are always shapes, stories, and the dance of light and darkness that can be photographed. The opportunities are just fewer and farther in-between.
That said, I will say that I have used more of my spare time during this pandemic to to sit in front of my computer and work on images that have long been neglected, or had never been afforded the time needed to bring out what was there all along. As Mr Adams might have said; The score was written, but now I have time to work on the performance.

 

[Bolo Kukus]

As a retired architect who has photographed mostly old colonial buildings for 40+ years, I feel I'm quite out of the mainstream of things photographic - but like so many others, Covid and the long periods of enforced lockdowns in Australia has made me reflect on what I've done and in which directions I intend to go in my photography when things return to a normal situation.

My photography this year hasn't changed all that much - when I can get out I still look for and photograph old buildings, more locally than distant. I had to fly home from Asia in a matter of days back in March, and it now seems another overseas trip is far away on my travel calendar, so be it.

A new/old camera, a Lumix GF1 dating to 2009 or 2010 bought from an elderly friend who no longer uses it, has done so much to revitalize my interest in finding new visual directions. I'll survive this, as I've survived so much else in all my years on this planet.

On one of my rare forays out of my small town, I discovered a true architectural gem, an Art Deco-Art Moderne toilet block from the 1930s, and shot up a storm with the GF1. Being me, I plan to return to this find with my Nikon D800 and a bag of lenses for more images of this obscure gem.

At home I've cleaned out, tidied and sorted my long-neglected darkroom and also created a (sort of) new archival system for my tens of thousands of old film negatives and slides. I've kept almost all my images dating back to 1961 when I first used my family's Kodak 616 Brownie, so it has meant a LOT of sorting, cleaning, captioning keywording, scanning (and destroying no longer wanted images).

I'm also devoting a lot of thought to what I want to do with all these 'visuals' I've accumulated over almost seven decades.

No satisfactory answer has yet offered itself to me in this, but I'm working on options. Donating collections of images to local and regional museums is one. Finding new family photos I've never shown to my 'rels' is another. Sadly, hundreds of images I made of my late grandfather, who passed away in 1993 at age 100, he will never get to see - during his late life he expressed interest but the opportunity never offered itself for me to show them, including the very few I have of his dear wife, my grandmother, who died in 1970. I have the only surviving color images ever taken of her, in her beloved garden and greenhouse.

I'm also starting to make small print portfolios of all my valued photos for those few relations who will appreciate them. A legacy from me to the family, too long delayed.

I've disposed of film stocks by selling and donating to young shooters and our local photo group. Clusters of darkroom equipment purchased but never used will be cleaned up and sold.

A problem lies with my old cameras - I have Nikkormats (and many Nikkor lenses) as well as 1950s German folders I no longeruse, which I know should go to new owners, but memories of my past travels and the many times I used these in my young years hold me back from disposing of them. I recall the efforts I made to save to buy those still-precious to me cameras and I hesitate to make the move.

Ditto my Contax G1s and lenses, which mostly stay in my camera cabinet. They are fine cameras and again I associate so many memories with them, so I dither and delay and in the end just hold on. I must use them more.

The Rolleis I'm keeping. They are too special to me. Family heirlooms.

I'm not doing enough darkroom work. B&W is my preferred medium in film, digital deals more than adequately with the color I want to do. Printing was once my sanity restoring pastime, but this year due to Covid, our recent move from Tasmania to the Australian mainland and all the usual settling in matters to deal with, I've yet to make any prints. I did process a lot of old films I had in the photo fridge, so all is not entirely hopeless.

In my photography I've never really been a people or street shooter, but now with my new GF1 to play with and the flexibility and simplicity of this camera, I want to stretch my limits and go in some new directions. The trick is how to do this - when the current Covid restrictions lift, I'll deal with this new aspect of my photography, but for the moment it's all mostly in my head.

New times, new directions. We keep on growing. The creative side is important to our mental development. All this to me is why photography has been such a valuable (and valued) part of my life.

 

[al1966]

In the first few wks of the lock down I shot like crazy, it helps we just moved to the countryside and miles away. Then I had a breakdown and for a couple of wks not a lot. Then as we have moved and some ideas have come its gone up.

 

[KenR]

For me lots of shooting on walks with the dog in my neck of the woods. But wIth no real travel this year, overall my film consumption is way down.

 

[Vince Lupo]

Nice to see people trying to keep busy one way or another despite the current situation.

This year's actually been pretty busy -- I had a bit of a slow period, work-wise, when the pandemic first hit, but then towards the latter part of the spring things just exploded and I've been very busy with jobs pretty much for the rest of the year. So honestly no complaints as far as commercial photo work goes.

From a personal work perspective, I haven't been able to get out to New Mexico this year, but I'm going to be part of an artist-in-residence program for the month of January in Carrizozo, NM, so we'll see how that all shakes out.

Two big things happened (at least I think they're big things) -- first, I got back into shooting film, which has been super-duper and a welcome return, as well as learning how to shoot and process glass plates. Second thing is that I sold off all my Leica stuff (after having been a devotee for the last 37 years) and made the jump over to the Hasselblad 907x system. It will be interesting to see how that equipment shift affects the direction of my personal work, but so far things have been going fairly well.

Not shooting as many people photos as I'd like, and I have a feeling that I'm reaching 'critical mass' with my wife as far as photos of her go, so I'll have to figure out another option in that department!

 

[JeffS7444]

When I reviewed 2020 to date, I was surprised to find that it's been a busier-than-expected year, but it helps that I did some traveling before anyone was talking about global pandemics:


https://share.icloud.com/photos/04hMRK-57DwVkeyMwpWYWk9uw


Some recent photo opportunities have literally come wafting in with the breeze (cough).


Have been unloading lots of random stuff which no longer no longer seemed to spark much joy, may buy a new camera or three.

 

[JohnWolf]

No unexpected economic hit for me, fortunately, because I was already scheduled to retire in March. However, I'm mainly a documentary/street shooter who now diligently avoids public spaces. Early in the pandemic I picked up a Holga and found it wonderful. Holga bikeabouts have been a creative and satisfying way to pass isolation. But I'm really missing the sights, sounds, and energy of the Chicago streets. I expect it's going to be a long, lonely winter.